Art Evolution / Literature

• In the Warrior Cats graphic novels, illustrator James Barry's art has gotten noticeably better between his first trilogy and his most recent volumes. While in some of the older works, the cats more or less had Only Six Faces, but now, in addition to being better art in general, the cats are a lot easier to tell apart and they all have distinctive facial features.
• In Septimus Heap, illustrator Mark Zug's images of the characters have become progressively more mature over the series, following Character Development.
• Since the Dorrie the Little Witch books were written from 1962 to 1992, the art in them evolved considerably.
• Arthur underwent a complete design overhaul over the years◊, going from something that looked like an actual aardvark before his snout gradually shrunk until becoming a basic Cartoon Creature.
• An interesting in-setting example is shown in the novel My Name Is Red, in which the traditional Ottoman/Persian style of art is being influenced by European and Chinese styles. The reaction to these changes are a major impetus for the novel's plot.
• Mary Grandpre's illustrations for the Harry Potter series became less geometric and way more realistic over time.
• The Rainbow Magic series' art has gotten cleaner over time, and much more detailed.
• In Little Critter, the title character was originally stockier and more rodent-like. He later became thinner and cuter with a bulbous nose.
• Rosemary Wells's art style for her animals from the 70's◊. 80's◊ and late 90's◊ looked different compared to her newer◊ illustrations.
  • Take a look at her earlier illustrations from 1973◊ to her newer illustrations for her characters.
  • Yoko started looking more fluffy and fuzzy looking in the newer Yoko books, compared to the first Yoko book from 1998.
  • In the 90's Wells did newer illustrations of Noisy Nora◊ by completely redesigning the cast and giving them pink ears. Where in the original version, they looked more realistic.◊
  • The very first book illustrated by Wells was "Impossible, Possum"◊ from 1971. As you can see, the art style and character designs look very different compared to her current illustrations for any of her animal characters.
• The Newest Plutarch inverts it In-Universe with Stanislav Psedombski, who started with extremely realistic pictures and shifted toward cubism toward the end.
• The first 11 volumes of A Certain Magical Index have characters drawn with relatively realistic proportions in the cover art and illustrations. Starting from Volume 12 onwards, they're drawn in a more deformed style, with disproportionately large heads.
• Dr. Seuss regarding the illustrations in his earlier books, not every character was originally depicted with "u" shaped pupils. In And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street, nearly every one of his characters, saved for a few non-humans, were shown with Black Bead Eyes. They had sclerae in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins but pupils were depicted round and normal. While certain characters had the u-shaped pupils early on, others still didn't. This, before finally settling on all characters depicted as such which the style would be known for later on.
• On the covers of the Horrible Harry books, Song Lee (who is Korean) was initially drawn with a yellowish skin tone. Starting from Horrible Harry in Room 3B, the book covers changed her skin tone to peach, similar to the Caucasian characters.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The art used in the novels is less sketchy than the one in the webcomic, and as the series has gone on, the illustrations have gotten much cleaner and more detailed.

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